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9.15.2009

Tweet Week - Bird Calls

I've long suspected that my parents don't know everything. One area that I suspect they're close to clueless is in what to call the varieties of birds that live here in the desert. I think they have the big ones down - Doves, Pigeons, Sparrows, Mocking Birds, Hummingbirds and Crows. I'll even give them credit for recognizing Road Runners, although I've never seen one in person.

Here is where things start to break down. Any small bird, that is not a Sparrow or a Hummingbird, is called a Finch. Still I trusted them.

When they called the less than attractive medium-sized brown bird a Nevada Brown Bird - I began to doubt them.

I still believe Dad saw a "Monster Pigeon" (big as a small dog) even when Mom says it with a snicker. I will also go with his claims that he sees a Falcon sometimes.

When we saw a lovely sparrow-sized bird that had a yellow face which turned orange and eventually red on his chest, I had my doubts that it's real name was a Tequila Sunrise, but I let it go. I had no real proof.

Then the other day we saw a little Finch-sized tasty, er pretty, looking little bird. He was a bright chartreuse with a black face and black wings. When Daddy called him a Wilson, named after his resemblance to a tennis ball - well, I knew they were clueless for sure.

My mom and dad keep binoculars and a bird book by the window to help us figure out who is visiting. They went to a local bird event tonight...did they take me along? NO! They took Grete! She could care less about the sweet tender birdies. I don't know if I can bring myself to blog about it....

Fin dear, it does not matter what you call any bird. As long as they are a)tasty, b)happy to fly about outside to entertain you and c) are not GIANT OWLS who might carry you off to be eaten, is all that matters.

Maybe the PM can help your folks. She is a tad bit anal about bird indentification. We have binoculars and four bird books. She takes their photos just incase they fly away quickly and she needs to know EXACTLY where that white dot on their rear is.

She says we scare the birds away with our drooling mugs pressed to the glass, I believe they can spot a crazy person a mile away.

Fin, I understand about your parents, because I don't know most of the bird names here either - although we don't have a lot of variety. Oh sure, the cardinal and the blue jay are easy, ducks and geese - no problem. But after that, well, pretty much forget about it.

Haha, a Wilson. That's funny. We see lots of different fev-vers here including the bigger ones,falcons and Sparrow Hawks and Buzzards.We have told the Beans to bring us back a road runner when they go to the desert next month.pee-essThat pigeon is back on our latest post again.